As the Toyota pulled up in monkey bay i jumped down, grabbed my bag and having paid the driver 300 kwatcha was directed towards another waiting Toyota which they said would take me to mangochi for 400 kwatcha and I could sit in the front seat! I shared the front with the driver and a young lad about 10 years old who said his name was shag. Along the road I leaped out and bought a portion of chips for breakfast which I shared with the hungry looking shag who eagerly helped himself to several handfulls.
Arriving at Mangochi two hours later having jolted our way along with the engine constantly miss firing at any speed under about 60, I was piled into a waiting mini bus where I squashed amongst fellow passengers, a pile of plastic buckets and bundles of sugar cane. About an hour later we pulled up at the side of a dirt track and the driver jestured towards me saying 'Mvuu, out here' so I paid my fee and stepped from the bus. As my previous transport sped away I was surrounded by a group of young men pushing and shouting and indicating I should get on their bike! I put down my pack, raised my arms and said 'back off guys', 'right, how much to Mvuu?' one guy stood right infront of me and said 1500 kwatcha to which I replied 'f... off, what do you think my name is bloody Santa Claus' i looked at them and said I will pay 500 kwatcha if someone wants to take me. there was some moaning but one tall slim guy said 'yes, OK you come' and to the moans of his rival bicycle taxi drivers I leaped on the back and off we went.
The picture right is my bicycle taxi with me dismounted because we had a flat tyre. we managed to get pumped up and on our way again quickly though. The ride from the road to the jetty on the Shire river was 16km along dirt tracks that wound through fields and villages and the guy peddling me weighed about 10 stone against my 13 stone plus my pack and this on a bike with no gears! he certainly earned his 500 Kwatcha. I arrived at the jetty and paid my $10 park fee for a two day visit and then the warden radioed for the boat to come over from the camp to collect me.
I arrived on the eastern bank of the Shire and climbed up the jetty and walked to the main camp hut where i checked in before being led to chalet number 3 which would be home for the next two days.
Picture right is chalet number 3. The chalets have a solid base and a low stone wall but the walls above that are just netting and the roof is canvas. the rear has a higher stone wall which encloses the toilet and shower area and also would provide some protection against an angry elephant which would have no problem at all in demolishing the majority of the building. Wild animals roam freely around the camp and at night you are strongly advised to remain in the chalet and movement between the chalet and the main hut where you dine has to be under the guidance of a warden. On my first night elephants came through and uprooted a water standpipe about 20 feet from my door and i never heard a thing! the second night I was awake when they came and was amazed at how silent these huge creatures move and how close they came to my chalet (about 6 feet!!). Every morning I would be met by grazing warthogs, vervet monkeys swinging on my porch and the hippo's grunting in the river just 30 feet away. Although I didn't see hippo's in the camp it is a common occurence. Mvuu is the chechewan name for hippo hence the name Mvuu camp. It is estimated that the number of hippo in the national park equates to one every 20 metres of river....and crocodiles are even more prolific!
Once I had dropped my gear and had a shower I returned to the main hut for lunch and then back for a rest before meeting up at 3pm to head off on our first safari.
Seven of us, the driver and a warden headed out in the safari vehicle along the dirt tracks and north into the wilderness of the national park. We saw a whole range of animals, too many to remember all the names of but as dusk started to spread over the landscape we parked up on a grassed area near to the river and as we dismounted from the vehicle to eat the snacks laid out on a little picnic table for us and drink double gin and tonics we were treated to the spectacle of elephants, hippo, warthog, crocodiles and numerous birds filling our view as they grazed and passed along the river bank.
The picture right was taken whilst having our gin and shows a herd of elephant passing by and a hippo going into the water whilst in the foreground warthogs get down on their knees to graze. in the background along the waters edge lie crocodiles.
It was dark as we headed back to camp through the bush but that gave us the opportunity to spot some of the nocturnal inhabitants of the park like the bushbaby and owls. We arrived back at Mvuu at 7pm just in time to sit down for dinner of butternut squash soup followed by beef curry and then a sweet with mzuzu coffee. i sat and listened to the sounds of the African night under a clear star speckled sky drinking a couple of bottles of carlsberg green before being escorted back to my chalet for a good nights sleep.
I was awake early as the cool breeze of morning and the sounds of hippo from the river penetrated the mesh wall of my chalet so I showered and went over for breakfast as we were due out on safari again immediately after breakfast in search of the black rhino. Despite two hours of driving and sighting many great animals the black rhino remained elusive. apparently they are very difficult to see and even one of the wardens said that although he had heard them several times he had not actually sighted one this year. Oh well, maybe next time!
for the rest of the day I wandered around camp and relaxed and then at 3pm gathered in the main hut for coffee before embarking on a river safari which would take us about 12k south down the Shire. We boarded the small boat and put on our life jackets although i am not quite sure what good they would do. If you fell in here you wouldn't swim far before a crocodile had you! Fishing in the park is illegal but some local villagers go out in their dug out canoes to fish and apparently the crocs are learning that if they hit the boat they get their man! the warden told us that 8 villagers had been taken this way this year.
Hippo and crocodiles really are prolific. just yards from leaving the jetty we were looking in the eyes of our first crocs and seeing the ears and eyes of submerged hippo's staring at us. about 10 minutes down stream we came across our first elephant who had come down to drink.
We saw many more elephants, hippo's and crocodiles on our journey down the river and as we were returning up stream we stopped the boat for a while to watch the sunset over the shire and listen to the sounds of the African wilderness as we sipped our gin and tonics (doubles of course) and enjoyed the moment. as darknes fell and we moved up the river there came into view one solitary light in the distance amongst the all surrounding darkness. it was the jetty light from Mvuu and we moved steadily towards it arriving back in camp just in time for dinner at 7pm. tonight was mushroom pancake followed by portuguese chicken then a sweet and more delicious mzuzu coffee. After a couple of greens I decided to get back to the chalet because i wanted to see the elephants tonight. I would slightly regret that decission in the morning as for as much as I enjoyed seeing the elephants in camp again whilst i was in my chalet there was a report of a lion sighting and those still in the main hut climbed into the vehicle and headed out into the night to be treated to the sight of a magnificent young male lion. This was rare. the lions that were once in liwonde had left a few years ago after one of the pride was killed by poachers. In the last couple of years there have been a few sightings and the sighting tonight, although I did not see it, is a wonderful indication that the lion may be returning to liwonde.
Tuesday morning i was up and spent some time walking around camp before breakfast. after breakfast i checked out and said goodbye to Mvuu and its staff and managed to get a lift with a scandinavian couple back out along the 30km road to liwonde which saved me the arse aching agony of another 16km ride on the back of a bicycle. My friends dropped my off at the mini bus station just over the Shire bridge and for 800 Kwatcha I crammed into yet another mini bus for the three and a half hour journey back through Zomba and Limbe before getting dropped off outside our offices in Blantyre.
Great trip, great memories and some great photographs.
My final picture for this post was taken from our boat on the Shire as the sun set over the African landscape.
Arriving at Mangochi two hours later having jolted our way along with the engine constantly miss firing at any speed under about 60, I was piled into a waiting mini bus where I squashed amongst fellow passengers, a pile of plastic buckets and bundles of sugar cane. About an hour later we pulled up at the side of a dirt track and the driver jestured towards me saying 'Mvuu, out here' so I paid my fee and stepped from the bus. As my previous transport sped away I was surrounded by a group of young men pushing and shouting and indicating I should get on their bike! I put down my pack, raised my arms and said 'back off guys', 'right, how much to Mvuu?' one guy stood right infront of me and said 1500 kwatcha to which I replied 'f... off, what do you think my name is bloody Santa Claus' i looked at them and said I will pay 500 kwatcha if someone wants to take me. there was some moaning but one tall slim guy said 'yes, OK you come' and to the moans of his rival bicycle taxi drivers I leaped on the back and off we went.
I arrived on the eastern bank of the Shire and climbed up the jetty and walked to the main camp hut where i checked in before being led to chalet number 3 which would be home for the next two days.
Once I had dropped my gear and had a shower I returned to the main hut for lunch and then back for a rest before meeting up at 3pm to head off on our first safari.
Seven of us, the driver and a warden headed out in the safari vehicle along the dirt tracks and north into the wilderness of the national park. We saw a whole range of animals, too many to remember all the names of but as dusk started to spread over the landscape we parked up on a grassed area near to the river and as we dismounted from the vehicle to eat the snacks laid out on a little picnic table for us and drink double gin and tonics we were treated to the spectacle of elephants, hippo, warthog, crocodiles and numerous birds filling our view as they grazed and passed along the river bank.
It was dark as we headed back to camp through the bush but that gave us the opportunity to spot some of the nocturnal inhabitants of the park like the bushbaby and owls. We arrived back at Mvuu at 7pm just in time to sit down for dinner of butternut squash soup followed by beef curry and then a sweet with mzuzu coffee. i sat and listened to the sounds of the African night under a clear star speckled sky drinking a couple of bottles of carlsberg green before being escorted back to my chalet for a good nights sleep.
I was awake early as the cool breeze of morning and the sounds of hippo from the river penetrated the mesh wall of my chalet so I showered and went over for breakfast as we were due out on safari again immediately after breakfast in search of the black rhino. Despite two hours of driving and sighting many great animals the black rhino remained elusive. apparently they are very difficult to see and even one of the wardens said that although he had heard them several times he had not actually sighted one this year. Oh well, maybe next time!
for the rest of the day I wandered around camp and relaxed and then at 3pm gathered in the main hut for coffee before embarking on a river safari which would take us about 12k south down the Shire. We boarded the small boat and put on our life jackets although i am not quite sure what good they would do. If you fell in here you wouldn't swim far before a crocodile had you! Fishing in the park is illegal but some local villagers go out in their dug out canoes to fish and apparently the crocs are learning that if they hit the boat they get their man! the warden told us that 8 villagers had been taken this way this year.
Hippo and crocodiles really are prolific. just yards from leaving the jetty we were looking in the eyes of our first crocs and seeing the ears and eyes of submerged hippo's staring at us. about 10 minutes down stream we came across our first elephant who had come down to drink.
Tuesday morning i was up and spent some time walking around camp before breakfast. after breakfast i checked out and said goodbye to Mvuu and its staff and managed to get a lift with a scandinavian couple back out along the 30km road to liwonde which saved me the arse aching agony of another 16km ride on the back of a bicycle. My friends dropped my off at the mini bus station just over the Shire bridge and for 800 Kwatcha I crammed into yet another mini bus for the three and a half hour journey back through Zomba and Limbe before getting dropped off outside our offices in Blantyre.
Great trip, great memories and some great photographs.
My final picture for this post was taken from our boat on the Shire as the sun set over the African landscape.
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